The present invention relates to remote control of instrumentation, and more particularly to a remote master-slave control method using a single command line between the master and the slave.
In the television industry to monitor video signals there are waveform monitors and vectorscopes which provide information about different aspects of the television video signal. Currently, these instruments do not communicate with each other so that if an operator wants to look at a particular signal the operator has to set up and/or make changes to both instruments separately. This is a time consuming operation and can lead to human errors resulting in erroneous interpretation of the displays on the respective instruments. One manufacture of these instruments has provided a hardwire line between these instruments for providing a line strobe from one instrument to the other with a single operator action at the first instrument, but there is no provision for limiting the strobe only to the first instrument, i.e., if the strobe is activated, it affects both instruments without choice by the operator.
What is desired is a method for controlling the operation of one instrument (slave) from the control panel of another instrument (master) while maintaining the ability to operate the instruments independently from each other.